American 18K gold hunting cased watch with chronograph Circa 1881

Hunting cased pocket watch by American Waltham Watch Company
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A heavy and high quality, very early Swiss 18K gold hunter watch with chronograph, circa 1881.
Signed original 18K gold case, very nicely preserved guilloche pattern. Also signed original enamel dial in very good condition with Roman radial hours, outer minutes/seconds track with Arabic minutes/seconds numerals, subsidiary dial for the constant seconds, centre chronograph hand, and blued steel pear hands. Very rare chronograph movement based on the patent from 1876 and 1880, signed and numbered.
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Diameter: 51 mm
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Weight: 124 g
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Signed: A.W. Co. Waltham
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A rarity among American collector’s watches.
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Waltham Watch Co., an American pocket watch factory
The American Waltham Watch Company was founded in Roxbury, Massachusetts, in 1850 by David Davis, Edward Howard and Aaron Lufkin Dennison as the ” American Horology Company “. The concept was to produce completely interchangeable and highly standardized watch components.
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At the end of 1852, the first clocks were completed. The first 17 watches, stamped “The Warren Mfg Co”, were distributed among the company’s management. Watches 18 through 100 were minted as “Warren Boston” and another 800 as “Samuel Curtis”. A smaller lot called ” Fellows & Schell ” were sold at $40.00 each.
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The Waltham Watch Company, under its various corporate names, has manufactured approximately 40 million wristwatches, grandfather clocks, wall clocks, tachometers, compasses, timers and other precision instruments of the highest quality in the United States over 100 years. Each work was individually numbered.